Natural gas is a clean burning fuel (relative to gasoline and diesel) with improved emission levels of hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides (NOx), carbon oxides (COx) and particulate matter. Increasing concern over exhaust emissions regulation and fuel efficiency has led to an interest in burning a combustible gaseous fuel, such as propane, hydrogen or natural gas in engines.
This interest is even more pronounced with regards to marine vessels. Marine vessels are many times less efficient than land-based vehicles due to the energy demands of cutting through water. This inefficiency has led to increased amounts of pollution, in particular as it relates to pollution of water bodies and adjacent air. Furthermore, increasing costs associated with gasoline and diesel fuels have dramatically increased the cost of operation for marine vessel operators.
Due to recent advances in technology for harnessing natural gas, natural gas has become an attractive alternative to gasoline and diesel fuels, however, upfitting and/or retrofitting an existing fleet of marine vessels with natural gas enabled technology has been overly expensive and a logistics challenge since it commonly requires replacing the existing engines with new engines. New dual-fuel engines exist only for very large ships, leaving the majority of boats without alternatives for burning cheaper and cleaner fuels.
Accordingly, a need exists for a solution to these problems.